61 
hold a preeminent rank, and may justly be styled, Mercury, as being a sub¬ 
stance the most subtle, agile, ethereal, and the prime instrument of vegetable 
as of animal life.” 
“ The Peripateticks reckoned two principal elements, namely, fire and air\ 
for both of which our nitro-aerial Mercury may be substituted, as possessing 
the nature of fire itself, and constituting, moreover, the most active and fer¬ 
mentative part of the air.” 
“ With respect to a second element, namely, the spirit of certain che¬ 
mical writers, I am unable to comprehend what they designate by this being, 
whom they place as the leader of their band of elements, and call an exalted 
spirit, unless it mean the same as that which results from the fermentation 
of liquor, which rapidly takes fire, when any lighted body is presented to it, 
and which I think it better to express by the term sulphur” 
“ Thirdly, those saline and corrosive parts which remain after the com¬ 
bustion of plants: these more properly come under the denomination of 
dalU.” 
“ Besides these, we have, fourthly, water ; and, fifthly, earth” 
“ Of these the nitro-aerial particles alone deserve the appellation of 
spirit” 
“ The sulphur is the next in activity to the nitro-aerial particles, with 
whom it has a perpetual contest.” 
“ The daltd possess a passive nature, but are more nearly allied to the 
nitro-aerial spirit than the sulphur.” 
“ The water acts only as a vehicle of the salts and sulphur;” 
“ And the earth gives a proper consistency to the whole.” 
“ Having premised thus much, we come now to the play of these 
elements.” 
“ At the commencement of spring, the nitro-aerial Mercury , from its 
keen, active, and penetrating nature, and the attractions which invite him, 
dedcendo deep into the earth, and assails in the first place the sulphur, which 
is now firmly combined with the dalU, and, as it were, entirely engaged in 
the embraces thereof.” 
nating engine, to overturn fortified cities, and to enable the garrison to launch out death and destruc¬ 
tion on the besiegers: Or,... that bj a different process, it may be made to pour forth VITAL AIR, 
that vivifying fluid diffused through the atmosphere, which breathes in the zephyrs, which whis¬ 
pers in the breeze, and which cheers and supports all animated Nature! ... Dr. Fothergill. 
Q 
